Today, Foundations goes from pre-sale to full sale, and there’s two aspects of that I have to pay attention to: first, we want to try and pick the risers early, and second, we get a race to the bottom with the rest of the cards. 

Specifically today I want to talk about Jumpstart cards. It’s proven that many of the Jumpstart cards can get pricey when they become popular, like Neyith of the Wild Hunt, who’s nearly tripled in price since she’s amazing with the new Wolverine. 

So let’s talk about that set, what it’s meant for, and how we can profit.

Jumpstart is a subset that I understand the purpose of, as a way to get new players to play. Magic is an exceedingly complicated game, expecting the player to keep track of a complicated turn order and an endless array of card types. I am as invested as a player can be, short of a professional PT player or a dedicated tournament grinder, and it seems like every Commander game I play has a card I’ve never seen. 

However, I despise that these cards are only available in the Jumpstart packs, and therefore the supply is super scarce. People who open Jumpstart casually end up keeping the cards, and so the available supply is restricted to those who can open Jumpstart in some quantity. I also wish these were available in foil somehow, especially with the assorted slots available in a Collector Booster. Nonfoils stand out like a sore thumb in a lot of Commander decks, especially for modern cards.

So let’s start off with the Jumpstart cards that I like long-term, and see where some of these might go.

Generous Pup – $9 – Magic has recently taught me to never, ever, bet against cute puppies and/or cats. The Generous Pup is both adorable and ridiculously powerful, turning the placement of one +1/+1 counter into a whole Virtue of Loyalty trigger. That combination of abilities means that this card will often have a home, and being a cute puppy, this is one of my picks to rise quickly. The only thing holding this card back will be a lack of awareness for the card itself.

I think there’s a very good chance that this grows to a $20 price within the year.

Scythecat Cub – $29 – This is about the upper end of what Jumpstart cards can go for, and so while the Cub is amazeballs it’s too expensive for me right now. Most importantly, it says ‘that creature’ so you can go wild on any creature in your deck, or your Commander, or any combo pieces you want to enable. There’s so much potential in the card, and while it’s expensive now, I think it’ll have to trend down in price soon, and once it gets cheap, we can figure if the new price is worth it. 

Thurid, Mare of Destiny – $22 – I have made and lost plenty of money on Crested Sunmare over the years, and even adding red for Shadowfax works thematically, but isn’t necessary for Thurid. Having the copy ability on the Commander is extremely powerful, and having copies of Unicorns, Horses, and Pegasi running around is very strong. 

As such, we’re looking at this as a Commander, not just a card in the 99. That impacts the price, historically, as the only folks who want this card want to build around it, instead of adding it to others. The most popular commander from Jumpstart 2022, Kibo, is something like $7. I expect Thurid to sink down to the $10 range. 

Bonus, though, is that the Lisa Marie Secret Lair version of Crested Sunmare is a great spec if people decide to build Thurid decks. 

General Kreat, the Boltbringer – $14 – If Goblin players find out about this card, we’re all doomed. This combines two things Goblins like to do, make more tokens and punish the hell out of the rest of us. Impact Tremors on a creature is exactly what a Goblin deck wants, because they want to dump a million creatures into play and if the rest of us are dead before the attack step, oh well! Saves the effort of counting.

This also goes really well into the ‘deal one damage’ plans too, and that’s enough appeal across the genres for this to stay out of the bulk bin, and I would expect this to pop back up and get expensive when the attention gets high.

Dionus, Elvish Archdruid – $16 – This is too low. I’m actively afraid of what the Elf players will do with this card. Double the mana, bump the counters, all sorts of shenanigans are on the table when Dionus arrives. Elves are one of the most popular tribes in Magic, and this is going to double down on what they do best. I’ve met almost no Elf decks who would decline this card, especially something like Ezuri, who could tap out for mana, activate twice, and then attack for a billion.

Hurska Sweet-Tooth – $25 – This has a lot of play in Food decks, but those decks are so spoiled for choices that I think this might have trouble finding a place at this price tag. Considering the ease with which life is gained, and in big chunks, though, this has potential. Right now it’s $25, which is more than most decks want to deal with, especially with the number of cards that go into Food decks. This will come down some, but not a whole lot.

Finally, two cards I’m watching close as we switch from presale prices to open sellers: 

Borderless Mana Foil Blasphemous Edict at $45 – Mana Foil rares take over five hundred packs to be opened. There’s a lot of deals on Mana Foils early, but remember that even as Fractured Foils are the rarest, these are still extremely difficult cards to pull. I think this will easily gain to $75 eventually, and I’m hoping to get a couple of copies in the $35 range before the prices start to go back up.

Borderless Fractured Foil Doubling Season has sold out under $400 for presales–I expect this to be a $600 card if not higher. It’s a mega-staple, and this is the best version to date. Please do not underestimate the appeal of the cute kittens!

Cliff (@WordOfCommander) has been writing for MTGPrice since 2013, and is an eager Commander player, Draft enthusiast, and Cube fanatic. A high school science teacher by day, he’s also the official substitute teacher of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at a GP and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.